Dragon Maiden

Dragons! These scaly, fire-breathing lizards have captured the imaginations of many. They’re seen as larger than life – powerful, magical creatures. In some stories, they are little more than feral beasts.

In others, they are wise guides in the hero’s journey, as well as an eventual trump card. What will their fate be in this tale? That answer can only be determined by you!

Dragon Maiden Slot Review

Dragon Maiden is played on a five reel board, where each reel is three symbols high. Players don’t get traditional paylines. Instead, there are 243 ways to win! So long as you collect three or more identical icons in adjacent positions, the cash prize will be awarded. No need to keep an eye on boring, arbitrarily drawn lines. This structure is made even more important due to the available special features!

When two or more dragons land, they will always activate a re-spin. It allows for new dragon Scatters to land on the board, increasing your odds of activating free spins! For free spins, you need at least three Scatters. But the more you get, the more turns you will receive! During free spins, each time a Scatter lands, it increases the size of its reel. And if a reel becomes six symbols tall, it awards a single Golden Free Spin. Golden Free spins are played on a fully expanded, 5×6 reel.

Theme & Symbols

As much as we like the visuals, we have to be honest, there’s no real theme here. It certainly has the making for an interesting fantasy setting. But we don’t know how our red-headed heroine got her magical powers. We don’t know why she relentlessly hunts the dragons. Is it out of greed? Revenge? Loathing? Times like these, we wish Play’n’Go’s slots came with cool intro movies like NetEnt.

We love the background image in this game. You have a relatively tame one during normal gameplay, with a few animated elements. But then, you trigger free spins, and the whole thing goes to hell. The sky turns crimson, lava spews from the mountains, and you see a whole host of dragons flying around! It’s such a massive visual upgrade over something like Book of Dead, by the same developer.

Icon design was also very well done. Clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades are usually very generic symbols. So Play’n’Go added these tiny scales on top of them to make them fit with their release’s theme. Other icons include broches, rings, daggers and coins, all with draconic decorations. Finally, there are two Dragon Maidens. One is a regular symbol, and the other is a Wild. You’ll know which is which if she bursts into flame and her lips curl up in a cruel smile. Are we sure she’s really the hero?

How to Play Dragon Maiden

The slot is played on a 5×3 board with 243 ways to win. Forgoing traditional paylines in favor of this system was probably a necessity for the developer. The free spins bonus would not work otherwise! The game also comes with a high volatility, and a teasing attitude. The number of times we triggered free spins only to get a 5x win was one too many.

Everything in this Play’n’Go release revolves around the free spins round. That’s where all the big wins are, after all! The re-spins round’s sole purpose is to enhance your extra turns special feature. Even if you land three or four Scatters, which is enough for triggering free spins, re-spins will still play first. It’s clear the developers want you to spend as much time as possible playing their main bonus.

Dragon Maiden does away with boring things like coin values entirely. Instead, it has a large bar in the bottom-middle of the screen, where it lists all the values you can bet. Your minimum wager starts with a tiny €0.10 per spin, and goes up to an impressive €100.00 on each spin. The slot also offers a strong jackpot, worth 5000x.

Bonus Features

Available special features can be safely described as flashy. Don’t get us wrong, their winning potential is awesome. But so are a lot of other bonuses. But we guarantee the first time you see the reels start expanding, you’ll be thoroughly impressed. And that’s the core difference between other special features and this game’s own.

• Re-spins

If two or more Scatters appear on the reels, this bonus is activated. The reels will spin again, in hopes of landing another dragon Scatter. Every time a new Scatter appears, another re-spin is played. This continues until no new Scatters appear, or all five reels have a single Scatter in them.

• Free Spins

Three, four or five Scatters award eight, ten or twelve free spins. Every time a Scatter lands on a reel, it increases the height of said reel by one icon. A single reel can reach a maximum height of six symbols.

• Golden Free Spins

When a reel is fully extended to be six icon tall, it awards a single Golden Free Spin. They work exactly the same as regular free spins – except they are played on a fully expanded board. That is a 5×6 playing field, with 7,776 ways to win. Quite an upgrade over the initial 5×3 reel!

Dragon Maiden Payouts

Play’n’Go’s release has a high volatility and a jackpot worth 5000x your total stake. Dragon Maiden’s RTP is 96.49%, which is above the current industry average.